God's sovereignty and the beginning of mankind's free will
2/25/2010
God's has always been sovereign! God’s eternal sovereignty is talked about consistently throughout His Word. (Sovereignty means that he does as he pleases and nothing can stop Him.)
From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done. Isaiah 43:13 (NLT)
When did our free will start? We are created in God's image, so we have a free will. But our free will was put into action when Adam and Eve needed to obey God. That was when God gave Adam the one command that he and Eve needed to obey. We could say, God in His sovereignty created us to have a free will, and He allows us to use it.
…God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Genesis 2:16-17 NASB®
It just seems reasonable that Adam and Eve, with their ability to choose, would obey God, doesn’t it? This is because they absolutely knew that God had just created them and loved them. The command God had given them was very reasonable and had no hardship in it, because it only asked them not to eat from one of the many desirable trees that produced good fruit to eat. God had tailor made the command, so that they would have no excuse for not obeying. I would imagine, even if you are not familiar with the Bible, you know Adam and Eve used their freedom to choose to disobey God. (Read Genesis 2:1-3:6).
Why did Adam and Eve use their free will to choose to go against God (sin)? It seems they wanted something more than what God offered, or they thought they knew better than God, so they chose fruit over the Creator. I would dare say, their pride was getting the best of them! This scenario does sound familiar. How many times have you thought you were going to acquire or accomplish something, or feel wonderful, by choosing to disobey God? (Read Psalm 32).
Why would God, give them the command not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, since He knew they would eat it? This is because the command gave them a choice. God never created us to be puppets! He wanted us to be able to freely love and obey Him! Yes, God could have stopped Adam and Eve from eating, or could have never told them, not to do something – He is sovereign. But where would He draw the line with people’s free will? He doesn’t water it down through constant intervening. God in His sovereignty gave us the gift of free will, and allows us to use it.
Their perfect relationship with God, and with each other and the world was wrecked because of their rebellious choice. They had also lost their freedom of choice concerning sin because they became enslaved to it. If all this wasn’t bad enough, they passed this inheritance of bad choices on to us!
If you have believed in Jesus Christ, then He has set you free from being enslaved to sin. He has also brought you back to the freedom of choice - whether to obey God or not, like Adam and Eve had before they sinned. Will you chose to obey God or not? You do have a choice, because God in His sovereignty gave you the gift of free will! (Read Ephesians 2:1-9).
Because of God’s sovereign love, Gini